Bitcoin Shockingly Drops 90% to $2,707 on Binance Futures

Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a jaw-dropping 90% price plunge on the Binance BTC/USDT perpetual contract today, dropping from $27,100 to a low of $2,707.

Data confirms that this shocking drop occurred multiple times within 17 minutes, from 08:00 to 08:17 (UTC). However, the chart corrected itself and resumed normalcy shortly after the multiple drops occurred.

The unprecedented decline triggered speculation within the crypto scene, leaving proponents and market participants confused. Some vigilant users even captured screenshots depicting the price dipping to as low as $2,706. 

This drastic plunge into uncharted territory raised concerns and drew immediate attention. To put this into perspective, Bitcoin hadn’t visited the $2,700 price range since July 2017.

Binance CEO Comments

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, quickly addressed the issue on X, stating that it was related to a Kline display issue for the BTC/USDT chart. However, he reassured users that trading remained unaffected. According to him, the raw data via the API was functioning correctly.

Futures Kline (chart) display issue on BTCUSDT. The UI aggregated Kline has issue, the raw Kline via api is working fine.

Trading not affected.

Team is fixing.

— CZ ? Binance (@cz_binance) September 29, 2023

Zhao clarified the situation, reiterating that the raw Kline data was fine. He provided data to substantiate this statement. He acknowledged that the problem resided with the Kline UI (display) and provided supporting data.

Kline refers to the price and time information used to create candlestick charts, which visualize price movements over time. The Kline UI (display) shows how these charts are presented on a trading platform’s user interface (UI).

Zhao’s statement confirmed that the issue was purely graphical. While the raw data remained accurate, with all trades and positions unaffected, the case merely affected the visual representation of price movements on the platform’s UI.

Despite the alarming screenshots circulating on social media, The Crypto Basic could not identify any user who reported significant liquidations due to this incident. This aligns with Zhao’s explanation that the glitch was purely graphical, with no effects on trades.

Shortly after his first remarks on the issue, Zhao confirmed that the engineers had identified the cause of the glitch. According to him, the problem resulted from a new code added to the codebase. He noted that the engineers were working to revert the code. Binance has resolved the issue as of press time.

Similar Case with XRP

Interestingly, this incident resembles a previous occurrence involving XRP on Bitrue on April 26. During that event, the XRP/USDT pair nosedived from its usual trading range of around $0.47 to a mere $0.0001.

However, what sets the Bitrue incident apart from Binance’s is that the XRP crash on Bitrue resulted in the liquidation of numerous XRP long positions, causing substantial losses for affected traders.